Deodorants, pharmaceuticals and beauty aids in the form of cream or gel products are often applied by forcing them through apertures in the dome of a container with an elevator within the container that is advanced toward the dome by turning a knob or by some other manually operable mechanism.
One of the problems encountered is that continuous application of pressure by the elevator in the contained cream product, after a desired amount of gel or cream (such as an antiperspirant, for example) has been dispensed causes a liquid phase separation of the cream or any product that would separate into the liquid phase under compression, allowing the silicon portion of an antiperspirant, for example, to separate and flow through the apertures in the dome and down the sides of the container so as to get on the hands of a user as well as on the surface where the container is stored. This is generally referred to as weeping. This same problem may occur with certain gel products.
In some applicators designed to overcome this problem, a spring forces the elevator away from the dome of the container so as to relieve pressure on the cream after a desired amount of cream or gel has been dispensed. Examples of such applicators are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,756,730 and 5,000,356, and in the European Patent No. 95307297.2.